04 March 2005
	SIDELINES FRAIL-SAFE HELP FOR THE ELDERLY

Frail bones and unsteady legs result in hundreds of elderly people falling and breaking bones each year. The tragedy is that they often lie helplessly for a long time before someone notices their plight and is able to render assistance to them. However, a system developed by a final-year computer engineering student at the university of Pretoria (UP) could provide the solution. Developed for use in old age homes, it can reliably and efficiently detect falls using closed circuit television. According to the developer, Vijeprathap Vijendranath, the system uses a camera that feeds video images to a computer. "Through pattern recognition, the camera software is able to identify falls and alert a nursing station immediately," he says. He developed the system, called Intelligent Elderly Care (iEC), while working with monitoring systems for elderly care. This was during an eight-week internship with Imperial College for the Department of Medicine based at Charing Cross Hospital in the UK. His system has been used in the UK and has been instrumental in cutting costs associated with treating injuries suffered by senior citizens as a result of falls. When he returned to the UP, Vijendranath refined the prototype and entered it in the 2004 Computer Society International Design Competition, which had the theme "Making the World a Safer Place". The iEC was short-listed as one of the top 10 entries for universities worldwide. The plan is now for Vijendranath to return to Imperial College to do three more years of research and development on the iEC system. After that he wants to commercialise the product in SA.